Forgive And Forget?

May 20, 2000|By MIKE BERARDINO Staff Writer

Even now, five years later, it remains quite possibly the worst miscalculation in the history of professional sports. At some point you might expect that whole nightmare period to fade from memory, but the pain and confusion it caused remains.

Consider new Marlins reliever Ron Mahay, who reportedly was greeted with taunts of "Scab in the room! We got a scab in the house!" upon joining the Oakland Athletics last September. Veteran utility player Tony Phillips was the only one spewing such venom, but Mahay remained "close to being an outcast," according to one published report, before the A's finally sold his contract on May 11.

Major League Baseball owners used so-called "replacement players" in an attempt to break the players union in the spring of 1995. The attempt backfired, all those overmatched players bringing only bad publicity and bad baseball.

There were some ugly incidents in those first months after the end of the 234-day strike. The Los Angeles Dodgers were openly hostile to a third baseman named Mike Busch after he was called up. The San Francisco Giants refused to speak to infielder Joel Chimelis, so he was quickly shipped back to the minors.

Nothing like that happened to Mahay (pronounced MAY-hay) upon joining the Marlins last weekend in New York. Mahay, a Boston Red Sox replacement player in '95, was treated civilly by his new teammates. A day earlier fellow reliever Joe Strong, a Chicago Cubs replacement player who says he quit after three spring games, was greeted warmly by those more inspired by his 17-season journey than annoyed by his one stolen spring.

It helps that the Marlins have already been through this with infielder Kevin Millar, a Marlins replacement player in '95. None of the veterans left over from the '97 World Series titlists seemed to mind having Millar around the following season. As the roster turnover continued and the club grew younger still, the potential for conflict essentially evaporated and Millar's past became a non-issue.

Still, a stigma remains attached to those who crossed the line. None of the replacements has been allowed to join the union; the latest petition was denied last winter. All are excluded from the annual disbursement of licensing money, a penalty that costs each ex-replacement between $15,000 and $60,000 a year. The ex-replacements are still allowed to go through the salary arbitration process, and the union does defend them in cases of fines or suspensions.

"Once they let one player in, they'll have to let everybody in," says Mahay, 28. "Then again, they may not ever let us in. Who knows? ... That's fine. There's other ways to make up the money."

According to the players association, 22 former replacement players have appeared on major league rosters this season. Those include New York Yankees outfielder Shane Spencer, hero of the 1998 postseason drive; Atlanta Braves reliever Kerry Ligtenberg; New York Mets pitcher Rick Reed and outfielder Benny Agbayani; Boston Red Sox first baseman Brian Daubach; Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Damian Miller; and Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Keith Osik and reliever Rich Loiselle.

With the recent additions of Strong and Mahay, the Marlins became the only team with three ex-replacements on their current big-league roster. The A's had three until they sent infielder Frank Menechino back to the minors.

Half the majors' 30 teams have had at least one replacement this year. Right fielder Mark Kotsay is the Marlins' player representative, but he claims to have no qualms with the club's replacement-friendly policies.

"I don't think it's so much awkward," Kotsay says. "It might be awkward to a player who had to go through the strike, but this is only my third year up here. ... My stance on it is I've got no opinion either way. As far as I'm concerned, they're good people and they play hard. They're my teammates. That comes first."

In a touch of irony, Kotsay's home locker at Pro Player Stadium sits directly between those of Millar and Mahay. Kotsay says he has not asked Mahay about his past. Nor does Mahay seem interested in dredging up the details of his decision.

If asked, though, Mahay speaks softly and slowly, like a man recounting a life-altering moment.

"I wasn't even [involved] in it for the first two weeks," says Mahay, then a struggling outfielder entering his fifth professional season. "All of a sudden the [replacement] team was like 0-9, losing every game, and the GM came down to us and started asking guys to help him out and play. They started throwing paperwork at us, trying to make it look like a sweet deal. They were going to give us money."

The Marlins, for instance, promised a $5,000 Opening Day bonus to their replacements and $20,000 in severance pay. Other clubs gave $10,000, and the game-wide promise of $115,000 in annual salary proved too tempting for some to resist.